Vermont paychecks stop for consultant Gruber

Jonathan Gruber has a $400,000 contract from the state of Vermont for his consulting on health care. Gov. Peter Shumlin said Tuesday that it’s too late to replace Gruber, despite controversial remarks he made regarding President Barack Obama’s health care law.(Photo11: AP FILE)

Vermont expects economist Jonathan Gruber to finish his health-care consulting, but without any additional pay.

Lawrence Miller, the state's chief of health care reform, announced the decision Wednesday.

"I have told Mr. Gruber that I expect his team to complete the work that we need to provide the legislature and Vermonters with a public health care financing plan," Miller said in the statement. "I've informed Mr. Gruber that that we will not be paying him any further for his part in completing that work."

In an interview, Miller said the decision resulted from discussions that wrapped up earlier that morning. When asked about the contract change by email, Gruber declined to comment.

Gruber, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, has been working under contract for up to $400,000 to run economic models for a proposed government-financed health insurance system, known as single-payer.

The contract states that Vermont would pay Gruber up to $500 per hour, and the programmers working with him would be paid up to $100 per hour.

Miller and Gov. Peter Shumlin have denounced recently-surfaced remarks in which Gruber said, among other things, that President Barack Obama's health care law passed because of a lack of transparency.

"As the Governor and I have said, the comments by Mr. Gruber are offensive, inappropriate and do not reflect the thinking of this administration or how we do things in Vermont," Miller said in the statement.

Gruber and his assistants have submitted invoices for $200,000 and have been paid $160,000, Miller said. The remainder was retained until the conclusion of the job.

Vermont will continue to pay for the work of Gruber's research assistants, but will not pay any additional compensation to Gruber, the health care reform chief added.

"Graduate students are not the problem," Miller said.

Gruber has expressed regret for his comments, Miller said, and has made clear that he is committed to completing the work for Vermont.

When asked whether he doubted the integrity of the numbers that would come from Gruber's work, Miller was adamant: "As a health care economist, he is very well-regarded," Miller said. "I don't have questions about his professional skills."

Gruber's work will be evaluated by other economists and the joint fiscal office, as planned. Shumlin is expected to submit a financing report to the Legislature by Jan. 15.

Contact April Burbank at (802) 660-1863 or aburbank@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AprilBurbank